As the summer travel season kicks off, 12 Trips in 12 Days author and travel expert Jen Ruiz joins Wealth! to break down her top budget-friendly travel tips.

"Rule number 1 is never waste a purchase that you're making," Ruiz explains, encouraging travelers to take advantage of credit card perks, like points or miles for every purchase. She recommends avoiding Europe this summer, opting instead for places with off-seasons where travelers can get better deals and avoid big crowds, like South Africa, New Zealand, and Argentina.

For beginner travel deal hunters, Ruiz explains that the best course of action is to "pick one program that you know has good deals going from your airport" and get alerts for cheap flights. She also stresses the importance of planning ahead to save time and money, like choosing to go to a museum on a day when there may be reduced admission prices.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth!

This post was written by Melanie Riehl

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Video Transcript

Well, if you like millions of others are planning to travel this summer, how do you do?

So without breaking the bank?

Joining me.

Now, we've got Jen Ruiz who is a travel expert and author of the new book, 12 trips in 12 months, wait a minute, 12 trips in 12 months.

You, I mean, we're gonna break down what you want, but people need the tips in order to navigate this summer travel season.

Where do they start?

What's rule number one, I think rule number one is never waste a purchase that you're making.

So, so many people are already buying things online.

They're already paying with a credit card.

You should be getting some kind of points or miles for every purchase.

So particularly if you link, for instance, I took a Lyft to get here this morning.

I got airline miles for that Lyft purchase just by linking my account.

So I think anybody even if you don't have a travel credit card can be getting points and miles for these online purchases.

Ok.

So with that in mind, where are you seeing and we're gonna get into your 12 trips?

Because I imagine a lot of other people are trying to make the same decisions on how to plot out their trips as well.

What are the no nos if you will, the, the thing that you should be looking out for as you're starting your trip planning.

Well, you mentioned European travel being the most popular place for the summer.

I probably would avoid going to Europe this summer and find somewhere that is off season where you can get better deals.

The southern hemisphere, South Africa, New Zealand, Argentina.

This is their off season right now.

So you can actually find much better deals with less crowds and probably have a more enjoyable experience than you would peak season Europe.

You know, Rome.

Interesting.

I believe we have a full screen as well because you broke this down very well in terms of the do this and don't do this.

So I, I wanna run, run through a few of those things and, and it starts where people are booking too and talking about some of the deal sites there.

How can you navigate?

What is a, a trove of listings that are gonna come forward when you start that search and put in the date and time that you wanna travel?

It can be so overwhelming, right?

And you get so many alerts, so many notifications, I would say pick one program that you know, has good deals going from your airport.

There are a lot of flight alert sites that will send you an email and they will say, hey, there's a $99 flight to Paris.

Do you want to book?

Click here?

And that's really great way for people who are beginner deal hunters to find deals and just click to book.

What about activities?

I mean, you gotta do something when you get somewhere.

So how do you make sure that you're having fun on this trip that you're taking theoretically?

Um And then you're not breaking the bank along the way.

You should absolutely plan ahead.

It doesn't only save you money, but also time if you get a ticket in advance, you may save yourself an hour for waiting outside of that museum to get the ticket to go in and you'll probably save at least 10%.

Look for things like free walking tours that are available in most cities, look for free or reduced museum admission prices and plan your visits around those deals.

I need uh some, some splurge calculus if you will, when does it make sense to be, you know, perhaps a little bit more uh leisure about how much you are spending into an experience?

I think that it really depends on the person.

But for me, the whole point of traveling is to have a memorable experience.

So whether you want to splurge on a food dish that you wanna get something spectacular, go to a Michelin Star restaurant or you wanna have a fancier experience for instance I flew in here today in New York on a helicopter from Newark and on the way, we also flew over the statue of Liberty chopper here.

I really did.

Oh, my goodness.

Ok. Good experience.

It, it is.

It's a shared ride service.

So you're splitting the cost of it and you get that sightseeing tour on the way.

I mean, there's no better view of the Statue of Liberty than from above.

And you get into the city in five minutes as opposed to an hour, you're living like a queen right now.

All right, Jen.

I gotta know just as we're about to let you go.

What was the top trip?

1212 trips, 12 months title of your book.

What was the top one that you took?

Well, you know, you're is popular for a reason.

So I have to say that the south of France in peak season is quite unlike anything else.

The lavender fields, the sunflower, uh the Van Gogh art that you can see the real life places that he painted.

It's really quite lovely.

So that was a very memorable trip just by virtue of being so peaceful.

All right, the Queen Jen Ruiz who is a travel expert and author of the new book, 12 trips in 12 months.

Thanks so much for coming in studio.

Be a chopper.

No less.

Not too shabby.